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God's Not Dead 2
God's Not Dead 2 is a 2016 Christian film directed by Harold Cronk and stars Melissa Joan Hart, Jesse Metcalfe,David A. R. White, Hayley Orrantia and Sadie Robertson. It is the sequel to the 2014 film God's Not Dead and was released on April 1, 2016. Plot After answering a student's (Hayley Orrantia) question about Jesus, a high school teacher (Melissa Joan Hart) faces a court case that could end her career. Cast *Melissa Joan Hart as Grace Wesley, a Christian teacher who struggles between giving up her faith or giving up her job *Pat Boone as Walter Wesley, Grace's grandfather *Jesse Metcalfe as Tom Endler, Grace's lawyer and the neutral defense attorney *Fred Thompson as Senior Pastor *Hayley Orrantia as Brooke Thawley, a Christian student *Robin Givens as Miss Kinney, the atheist principal *Sadie Robertson as Marlene, a friend of Brooke *David A. R. White as Reverend Dave *Benjamin Onyango as Reverend Jude *Ray Wise as Pete Kane, the atheist prosecutor *Ernie Hudson as Judge Stennis *Paul Kwo as Martin Yip Cameo appearences Lee Strobel, J. Warner Wallace, Mike Huckabee, and the Newsboys all have cameo appearences in the film. Production In July 2015, it was announced that production of God's Not Dead 2 was nearly complete. Promotion The day before the Iowa caucuses, presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (who appears in one scene) offered a free screening of the film. Reception Box office In its opening weekend, the film grossed $7.6 million (less than the original's opening of $8.6 million), finishing fourth at the box office behind Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($51.3 million), Zootopia ($19.3 million) and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 ($11.2 million). Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 12%, based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. The site's consensus states: "Every bit the proselytizing lecture promised by its title, God's Not Dead 2 preaches ham-fistedly to its paranoid conservative choir." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 22 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the underlying issues presented in the film are relevant in today’s world, but criticized its lack of subtlety, saying, "the entire film simply comes off as a two-hour, jazzed-up movie version of a sermon." Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter criticized the film's "straw man" argument and its perceived victimizing of Christians: "Pounding its agenda with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, God's Not Dead 2 will no doubt please its target audience. Everyone else will be left wondering why its fans seem to be suffering from such a persecution complex." Jordan Hoffman at The Guardian, while deeming it "a much better movie" than its predecessor, noted that "it is unfortunately just professional enough that there are only brief instances of transcendent badness, rather than drawn-out sequences." External links *Official website * Category:Films Category:2016 release Category:God's Not Dead series